Links for March 23, 2015

A short and vivid history of the color purple,
or how the chemist William Henry Perkin inadvertently created synthetic
purple dye, which, until 1856, was extracted from the mucous of
Mediterranean sea snails.

Biologists have called for a global moratorium
on use of a new technique for editing a human's genome that allows for
manipulation of hereditary traits, arguing that the technology as it
stands is dangerous from an ethical standpoint. Can you ever put the
gene-ie (get it) back in the magic lamp, though?

Leaping lizards! American herpetologists are speaking out against government inaction in the face of a potential "North American salamander apocalypse"
(their words, not mine). In all seriousness, the fungus
Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) poses a grave threat to
American salamander populations, and will most likely spread to North
America unless the government institutes a strict ban on the import of
salamanders from Europe and Asia. On a related note, check out this
amazing (but potentially fraudulent) photo of a lizard strumming on a leaf guitar.

This week, Jacobin magazine released a theme issue on "Technology and Politics."
It features an amazing line-up of articles, including one by historian
of science Eden Medina about her research on the history of cybernetics
in Chile. You can read the introduction to the issue here, which reflects on the complicated relationship between labor, capital, and technological progress.